I'll third the recommendation for a SSD as a boot drive.
I went with a Vertex 120GB and have been exceptionally pleased with it. I went a bit bigger so I could run games from it, but even just having your OS on a smaller SSD will make a huge difference in performance.

Honestly, SSDs were never buggy or more prone to errors than a normal hard drive (actually they are MORE durable and less prone to sudden failure...unlike hard drives which work and then usually poof! DIE on you). The only issue they suffered from was "pauses" called stuttering. It was caused by either a unpower controller or the drive getting it a degraded state (all the cells were "used" and need to be reset before they could be written to). The first issue was solved by newer controllers. The second issue was solved with the advent of TRIM and / or Idle Time Garbage Collection.

What OS are you planning on running? How much can you budget for the SSD?

IF you are going XP. I would look at the Indilinx based SSDs. as they have ITGC which is VERY effective. OCZ Vertex, Patriot Torqx, Corsair X, GSkill Falcon 1. ALL are the same SSD. My favorite of these is the Patriot Torqx w/ its 10 warranty. These are the "full speed" Indilinx SSDs. Moving down a speed notch you have the Corsair Nova, GSkill Falcon 2, OCZ Agility. They are all basically the same SSD (though some of the Agility's floating around still use the older barefoot and older gen nand). My fav of these is the GSkill Falcon 2.

Another good option is the Toshiba controller based Kingston SSDNow V+. Great potential, good speed, good price.

IF you are going Win 7....ANY modern SSD will do you fine. As long as you run in AHCI mode. AHCI is needed from the TRIM command to be passed on to the SSD. TRIM tells the drive to not only delete a file (when you delete it) but to actually clean the cells it was in.

IF you want a decent sized SSD that is one of the best out there at a fairly reasonable price, the 80GB Intel X25-M gen 2 @ 235'ish is a killer deal.
IF your budget is SMALL look at the Intel X25-V 40GB. Very decent unit and is only about 140 or so. Another decent option is the Kingston SSDnow V gen 2 line. They use Toshiba fabbed, JMicron designed JM618 controllers so there speed is lower than Intel or Indilinx...or Toshiba, BUT coming from a HDD to ANY SSD will be a HUGE speed boost! Pretty decent prices too.

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“if your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.” - Dr. MLK jr